778 books
—
3,253 voters
to-read
(410)
currently-reading (2)
read (662)
did-not-finish (0)
theatre (254)
fantasy (123)
french (119)
biography-and-memoir (81)
poetry (79)
short-stories (76)
horror (73)
comics-comix-and-manga (64)
currently-reading (2)
read (662)
did-not-finish (0)
theatre (254)
fantasy (123)
french (119)
biography-and-memoir (81)
poetry (79)
short-stories (76)
horror (73)
comics-comix-and-manga (64)
history
(61)
science-fiction (59)
humor (54)
americana (51)
childrens (50)
new-york (48)
german (46)
queer (46)
literary-criticism (45)
fin-de-siècle (43)
japanese (43)
medieval (43)
science-fiction (59)
humor (54)
americana (51)
childrens (50)
new-york (48)
german (46)
queer (46)
literary-criticism (45)
fin-de-siècle (43)
japanese (43)
medieval (43)
Matthew
is currently reading
bookshelves:
currently-reading,
humor,
adventure,
new-york,
short-stories,
science-fiction,
romance,
horror
progress:
(page 164 of 285)
""The swift Southern twilight had already veiled the forest as I stepped out of the cabin to smoke a cigar and promenade a bit and cogitate. A last trace of color lingering in the west faded out as I looked; the gray glimmer deepened into darkness, through which the white lake vapors floated in thin, wavering strata across the water."" — Nov 05, 2025 11:03AM
""The swift Southern twilight had already veiled the forest as I stepped out of the cabin to smoke a cigar and promenade a bit and cogitate. A last trace of color lingering in the west faded out as I looked; the gray glimmer deepened into darkness, through which the white lake vapors floated in thin, wavering strata across the water."" — Nov 05, 2025 11:03AM
“Keep reading books, but remember that a book’s only a book, and you should learn to think for yourself.”
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―
“As for literary criticism in general: I have long felt that any reviewer who expresses rage and loathing for a novel or a play or a poem is preposterous. He or she is like a person who has put on full armor and attacked a hot fudge sundae or a banana split.”
― Palm Sunday: An Autobiographical Collage
― Palm Sunday: An Autobiographical Collage
“This poem has been called obscure. I refuse to believe that it is obscurer than pity, violence, or suffering. But being a poem, not a lifetime, it is more compressed.”
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“I think we ought to read only the kind of books that wound or stab us. If the book we're reading doesn't wake us up with a blow to the head, what are we reading for? So that it will make us happy, as you write? Good Lord, we would be happy precisely if we had no books, and the kind of books that make us happy are the kind we could write ourselves if we had to. But we need books that affect us like a disaster, that grieve us deeply, like the death of someone we loved more than ourselves, like being banished into forests far from everyone, like a suicide. A book must be the axe for the frozen sea within us. That is my belief.”
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Matthew’s 2025 Year in Books
Take a look at Matthew’s Year in Books, including some fun facts about their reading.
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